Dubai: Emirates is increasing the number of direct flights to Australia with a second daily service to Melbourne starting on October 30 this year.
The airline said in a statement on Thursday it is dropping the Kuala Lumpur leg on its daily Dubai-Kuala Lumpur-Melbourne service to launch the direct flight. It is not replacing the Kuala Lumpur flight, an Emirates spokesperson told Gulf News, but will use an Airbus A380 on one of its three daily direct services to the Malaysian capital from October 30.
The announcement comes three years into Emirates’ revenue sharing partnership with Australian airline Qantas and seven months after Emirates entered into a similar arrangement with Malaysian Airlines, which flies twice daily to Melbourne from Kuala Lumpur.
Emirates President Tim Clark said on June 2 that Australia was a “growth market” with opportunity to “load capacity” on the existing points.
Emirates also flies daily to Australian cities Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. The carrier will use a Boeing 777-300ER on the new direct flight to Melbourne. The current daily service to Melbourne is operated with an Airbus A380 as is the daily flight via Singapore. Qantas also flies daily between Dubai and Melbourne with an A380.
